Discovery Charter School‘s fourth through eighth grade students delivered an impressive performance of the Supreme Court case , Shelby County Alabama v. Eric Holder. The students have researched and analyzed the contentious voting rights issues in the case. They held a video conference with US Solicitor General, Donald Verrilli to converse their findings on the issue to him on February 21. They also held a mock trial in front of the New Jersey Superior Court with Hon. Sherry Hutchins-Henderson four days later. Verrilli said that he thought they were terrific and perceived the younger students to being older from the excellency of how they carried out the case.
This work is part of a bigger project called the “History Train.” It’s an interactive step to learning and educating history where students read court briefings and primary source documents, hold discussions and debates concerning integral civil rights events and write essays. It’s a multi-media project that will be showcased at the culmination of the school year and presented to the students’ peers. It will have a moving scale and a digital model train feature that makes “stops” to emphasize on the astounding events during the civil rights era of American history. iPads and iPods are going to be used for the audience to venture into the timeline of history through recordings, pictures and videos.